Sunday, January 26, 2014

nagasaki chinatown

Peach was having a sale and we managed to get round trip tickets from Osaka to Fukuoka for less than $80! Fukuoka is located on Kyushu, one of the four main islands, of Japan. My goal is to be able to visit all four! Our flight was super early in the morning so we did an all night karaoke session in Osaka with our friends from Kobe. Had so much fun singing Disney songs and dancing! We were so into our singing we almost missed our train and had to run fast in the airport. Hate hate hate running!

Piece of advice if you ever use Peach and you're not one of the first people to check in and get a seat in the front then I say get on the plane last. Peach fills their seats according to check in time and so all the seats in the front are packed but if there are empty seats they will all be in the back. If you get on last or towards the end you can choose your seat and maybe get a whole row to yourself. However once you sit down you cannot change seats so say you sit down in your assigned seat and want to move to an empty seat behind you, they will not allow that to happen!

Our plan was to catch a bus straight from Fukuoka Airport to Nagasaki, spend a day there and then the second day will be spent in Fukuoka. Our first stop was Shinchi Chinatown, the oldest of the three Chinatowns in Japan, to grab some lunch. This Chinatown was actually quite disappointing in comparison to Kobe, consisting mainly of pricey restaurants. Next weekend was the beginning of the Nagasaki Lantern Festival so there were lanterns everywhere!

the traditional chinese whale lantern

what happened to the dragon?? alanna (rabbit year) kicked its butt!

Nagasaki's Chinatown is known for its two famous dishes champon and sara udon which are inspired by Chinese dishes. Champon is the noodle dish with liquid and sara udon has crispy noodles. The taste of these two dishes taste like a wetter version of chow mein. I would get the sara udon again but not the champon.

Hostel - Casa Noda
Very close to train and bus stations and near a tram stop!
Best thing is if you reserve via their website they don't ask for a credit card so no deposits, down payments or any penalty if you can't make it!
Dorm: 2470 yen a bed website